$57.3-Billion Farm Bill Clears Senate

The Senate, after solidifying the position of the “Freedom to Farm” law, passed a $57.3-billion agricultural appropriations bill, including $500 million to offset disaster losses. The bill also took the first steps toward rewriting U.S. policy on embargoes against other nations. It would exempt food and medicine from most unilateral U.S. embargoes as well as give President Clinton the power to waive for up to one year nearly all economic sanctions against Pakistan and India. Senators defeated on a party-line vote a Democratic proposal for hefty increases in harvest-time loans to farmers, the first major challenge to “Freedom to Farm.”